If you grew up around Chicago and liked hip-hop, y’all know what I’m talking about.

Saturday was my birthday. Normally I’m all sad on my birthday and I really thought I would be this year without my family or friends around. But happy days- I wasn’t! It was a gorgeous day, E brought me coffee in bed and made me brekkie, and got me some fantastic cards and chocolate. We decided to go easy on the birthday this year since we treated ourselves to lots of purchases before we moved (E’s birthday is a month before mine), but my Tory Burch Fitbit bracelet is considered my gift if I ever actually get it (backordered forever).

We are kinda obsessed with cards in our relationship. It’s pretty typical to receive more than one card for an occasion. There’s a great card shop in the Union Square mall called Paperchase. I’m pretty obsessed, its like a UK Papyrus but better I think. E got these 3 gems for me.

Emergency S’mores!

Another thing I’m kinda obsessed with is s’mores. In the US I had an emergency s’more kit. We lived in a highrise and had an electric stove so the kit included a sterno to toast the marshmallows. This kit was cracked out whenever I had an extremely, awful, horrible day. But I also like to enjoy s’mores at any opportunity. So E got me a little s’more kit, or they’re calling it a “dipping adventure” with white and milk chocolate, different cookies, chocolate candies and marshmallows. I guess it’s a cross between s’mores and fondu (which I equally love).

As I said, it was a beautiful day in Scotland and we spent the day walking around downtown. Had lunch at The Coffee House off Union Street, where you get free lunch on your birthday! Hurrah for wandering in there. We each had sandwiches and split a devine piece of carrot cake…because it was my birthday. There was a lot of activity (which I believe is because the impending vote for Scotland’s independence), and we caught the Annual Aberdeen Celebration of William Wallace. There was role playing with knights and queens, and kilts and bagpipes galore! I thought of it as a proper birthday celebration and Scottish history lesson just for me.

We went home and played with Stella before getting ready to go out for dinner. I had stumbled upon a spot called The Courtyard and saw it had pretty good reviews online, so about a week ago I made a reservation. I’m pretty pleased with the experience. We did the 3 course, which started with a little crab Amuse Bouche before our starter. For starters, I had scallops with pig belly and E had pigeon with duck and cherries. For mains, I had duck with pear and ginger sauce and E had one big ole hunk of pork belly. Dessert was strawberries with lemon posset and E had orange cheesecake with oreo crust. I think the latter was a weird combo, but it also came with orea ice cream that was delightfully American. Anyway, everything was great and I would definitely recommend.

Dinner at The Courtyard

I did notice last weekend when we went out to a more casual dinner, that a lot of women wear dresses out to dinner. I was also discussing with my friend Erin how it seems girls really go all out on the weekend. We were kinda implying that they seem a little ridiculously over-dressed for where they were and the weather…but I think I need to step up my weekend out attire a bit. Luckily for dinner, I did wear high heels (the one pair that came with me!) with my jeans…but all the other women in the restaurant were in dresses. I didn’t feel terribly out of place, I certainly looked put together and all. But now I’m thinking my dresses might get a little more wear than I anticipated…at least in the summer before I freeze my butt off. But for the time being, I no longer regret sending all my dresses and heels over.

4 Comments

Lauren, I love Paperchase too!! I took my friend there when she visited this Spring and she loved it. Did the smore kit have graham crackers? Have you found graham crackers in Scotland? I forgot to bring some back with me this summer when I visited the States. I miss smores.
I think people dress a little more formally here, especially when eating out. I love the dresses and skirts with the thick tights in the fall and winter!

Yes– I love tights and booties…good thing you can practically wear them year round here! Alas, no graham crackers in the hit, just chocolate-almond biscuits and breadsticks. I was doing extensive research on digestive biscuits though, and apparently US Graham Crackers are copied after the original UK digestive biscuits. And as I’m eating some milk-chocolate digestives from ASDA, I totally get the graham cracker flavor. I’m thinking they can be a substitute in a pinch? But I’ll probably bring a box back with me on my next trip state-side.

I was shocked when I first came to the States and saw that nobody really got dressed up to go out to dinner or otherwise – but now I love it 🙂 Makes life so much easier! I love that Americans don’t judge people on how they dress as much as us Brits do!

It’s true- yoga pants and a tank top are totally acceptable attire to go out to brunch in…not dinner, but definitely brunch! And most celebrity-chef owned restaurants you can walk in wearing flats, jeans, and a cute(ish) tee.